How long should a sketch be

Two minutes is a good length to start with. Most TV shows are on a tight budget. Don't write for a cast of thousands.

Say the lines as you write them. You need to hear what the material sounds like. Describe the physical action in detail. What are the characters wearing? What do they look like. What are their names? It will help to bring them to life in your mind. Brainstorming Bounce comedy ideas off the people around you. Don't work in isolation. If you don't have a writing partner which I highly recommend for this type of writing , throw funny ideas at your wife, boyfriend, brother, sister, teacher, mother, anyone who will listen.

Even better would be to sit down in a room of around 6 people and brainstorm ideas in a group. Write down everything. Sift through it later. Hit shows like Friends and Frasier are sometimes written by as many as 12 people. Where do the Ideas Come From? If you're stuck, the best place to go looking for ideas for sketches is in big reference books like, for example, Halliwell's Film Guide.

A book like this lists thousands and thousands of movie titles and plot lines. Stick a pin in, read a description of the film and see if it sparks off any funny ideas. For example, your sketch could be a spoof of: 1 A western? But once you find a subject, try not to approach it in an obvious way..

For example, if you're writing a sketch about hairdressers, don't set it in a hairdressing salon, set it half way up Mount Everest! You may have seen a sketch like this in Monty Python Working Backwards Sketches really should have a strong finish, so always work backwards.

Here's how to do it: Think of the punchline first. If you can't think of one after ten minutes there probably isn't a good one there. If that happens, throw the whole idea into the bin and move onto your next sketch title. Once you've got your funny ending, work out how to get there. Start by writing the line immediately before the funny end line. When you've worked out the whole of the last ten seconds of the sketch, it's probably safe to go and think about the beginning.

Types of Sketches To help you get going, here's a few tried and tested comedy formats for sketches. Stop killing people to end sketches. There are better ways.

Get creative. Think outside the box. We know this. This is why we ask writers to commit for the entire month. We can also tell each week, who is actually working on their sketch or not. Maybe you have a writing partner that you can commit to and ask to hold you accountable. Maybe you want to have a productive weekend. Hell, send it to me if you want. I love it. Email me. So, there are 5 tips for writing better sketch comedy.

Figure out who is your audience. Certain kinds of comedy work for certain kinds of audiences. Avoid topics that are overly offensive or will bore your audience. Think about your audience's average age. If you are performing for children, use content geared towards younger people like teddy bears, ponies, or popular cartoons.

If you are performing for adults, focus on topics for adults like sex, violence, international intrigue, politics, parenthood, or work. Think about the kinds of people in the audience. If you are into lowbrow comedy and your audience seems to be more highbrow, then you might want to consider their expectations. Remember what is funny to you, might be improper, insensitive, or outright offensive to others. Jokes about wealthy businessmen might work well in front of lower and middle class audiences, but will not be received in the same way by upper class people.

There are some exceptions, when it is ok to be offensive. Roasts are events where people come together to make fun of someone. Keep in mind that even these events need to mix insulting jokes with levity. Research other comedy sketches.

Look online for well-known comedy sketches, sketch groups, and sketch programs like Monty Python and Saturday Night Live. Research is absolutely necessary for two reasons. First, it will show you what many people consider funny. Second, it will show you what has been done before. For the most part, you should try to be original, because humor depends on your audience not expecting your joke. You don't want to misrepresent yourself or your comedy.

Brainstorm ideas. Now that you know how you will present the material and your audience, what kinds of topics do you think they'll enjoy? You can't write a comedy sketch without doing the leg work first. There are many ways to brainstorm before writing. Think of suitable topics for your sketch. Write down ideas as they come to you. You never know when inspiration will strike. You could be at a store buying doughnuts and think of a good joke for a comedy sketch on food, eating, or exercising.

Draw inspiration from popular movies, television shows, books, or comic strips. Some of the best comedy sketches are spoofs of other mainstream fictional or non-fictional works. For example, you could spoof the film series, Indiana Jones. He was a college professor, but most professors would never be as adventurous as him. In your spoof, you could play a "realistic" professor confronted by the same situations as Indiana Jones. Many people swear by free-word association.

On a piece of paper write down a word or central idea and then list 5 words that automatically pop into your head. If any of the resulting pairs seem strange, you might have something worthy of comedy. For example, begin with the word bear. Now think of words or concepts that pop into your mind when you think of bears like: wild animal, dangerous, wrestle, fish-lover, or furry.

Identify which one is interesting to you and you think will interest your audience. Maybe you choose to write a sketch on wrestling bears. Develop jokes from this research. The best jokes are surprising and often absurd. Like a magician, comedians need to be skilled in the art of misdirection. Lead your audience in one direction with the beginning of a joke and then add a "punchline", that surprises them. For example: I once wrestled a bear. It weighed less than a pound and was stuffed with cotton.

This joke uses the art of misdirection. The first sentence is the idea developed through word association. It makes you think that the following story will be about a person taking on a pound grizzly bear, so it is funny when it turns out to be a stuffed teddy bear. This joke is funny too because it is equally absurd.

How many adults do you know that wrestle teddy bears? Consider your jokes timing and delivery. Many comedians agree that a joke succeeds or fails based on timing. Think about how you might deliver the joke about wrestling a bear. Pause after you say "I once wrestled a bear". Here they are:.

Unless you happen to conveniently already have a funny idea, the best way to generate an idea for a sketch is to start with a real situation from life and work step-by-step towards a sketch idea. Below is a process to produce sketch ideas from everyday life situations; e. You can stop at step 3 if you have a viable idea that tickles you or you can proceed to step 4 to try and heighten the idea. Choose a situation from life. Do add some or make your own list. The main thing is not to try and think of a funny subject area.

Play it straight at this stage. Note, you can modify this process for parody sketches. Simply start with a list of programmes or movies etc instead of life situations. And to produce topical or satirical sketches start with a list of news stories. Or you may have witnessed it or heard about it. If find yourself having trouble thinking of something absurd, you can take a step further back and ask yourself what annoyed you.

Once you have found something annoying then ask yourself what is absurd about it. Being annoyed or even angry can be a good starting point but to get it to somewhere funny you need to identify the absurdity.

In this case it was an oversight but before he cleared it up there is a clear absurdity right there. The absurdity was the mechanic denying there was a problem with the vehicle when blatantly there was. He told John Cleese about this situation in conversation and Cleese felt there was a sketch in it. Having identified a situation with an absurdity you then need to set up the sketch dynamic. You will need two points-of-view POV in the sketch.

The one with the absurd POV is the comic protagonist: they are stopping the situation from proceeding normally, reasonably or logically. The one with the normal POV is the foil as their reactions are needed to heighten the absurdity and create the comedy. The simplest way is to make it a two-hander but you can have any number of characters as long as there are two points of view. For example, a three-hander with two points-of-view could be a married couple with the normal POV and a marriage guidance counsellor with the absurd POV.

But sometimes there is added value in giving them a motive. Here there is a strong sense that the mechanic is trying to fob the customer off to avoid expense and work. The game of the car sketch for the protagonist the mechanic is to get the customer to accept there is no problem with the car and to go away.

They stick to their POVs and play out this game. The game is them trying to solve their problems. OR if the mechanic is simply mad, from his POV his problem is trying to make the customer see there is no problem with the car. If you follow that fine distinction. Now you have your situation, absurdity and characters you can now find the funniness by asking yourself:.